A cheating scandal has led to one of Australian cricket‘s biggest sponsors to drop out on Thursday.
Players were caught scuffing the ball with sandpaper to make it swerve more last week. Since then three top players have admitted they were trying to cheat in a match with South Africa.
Now Australia’s Magellan Financial Group have cancelled a deal worth $15 million with Cricket Australia after just seven months. That pullout suggests an even wider impact from the scandal for a sport many in Australia saw as the epitome of fair play.
Magellan is the biggest so far but they’re not the first, some players involved in the scandal have lost individual sponsorship deals.
Sports brand Asics ended deals with both vice-captain David Warner and Cameron Bancroft. Electronics brand LG had already said it would not sign a new deal with Warner.
Public outrage hasn’t let off since the scandal broke. On Tuesday coach Darren Lehmann broke his silence to make an apology.
Australian cricket Darren Lehmann:”Like all of Australia we are extremely disappointed and as a team we know we have let a lot of people down and for that I am truly sorry. The players involved have been handed down very serious sanctions and they know they must face the consequences.”
“They have made a grave mistake but they are not bad people.”
Cricket Australia has found the scheme was premeditated and only included the three players. It also uncovered a number of lies told they told after they were caught.”
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